This was always the inevitable outcome
On Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron denied the nonsense filings aimed at exempting Ivanka Trump from testifying in Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial, and scheduled her to testify on November 3rd. Then the judge scheduled Donald Trump to testify on November 6th.
It’s important to understand that this was always going to be the outcome, and there were never any magic wand scenarios where the Trumps could simply get out of this. Ivanka was always going to have to testify against her family. There was always a 100% chance that Ivanka would be ordered to testify. There’s no such thing as defying (or even delaying) a subpoena to appear before a jury. She can’t plead the fifth because it doesn’t apply in this situation. She can’t just say “I don’t recall” in response to every question. She can’t just lie on the stand, because that would be perjury. There are no ways out of this.
Nor does Donald Trump have any magic wand options when it comes to his testimony. Because this is a civil trial, he’s expected to take the stand and defend his actions. If he fails to do so, or if he pleads the fifth, or if he lies on the stand, the judge will use this as a basis for even more severe damages in this trial. Trump can pick his poison. But no matter how he approaches this, he loses.
It’s important to understand that it took New York Attorney General Letitia James a long time to incrementally build the kind of overwhelming case such that this would be the outcome. It’s why James has won this trial via summary judgment. It’s why Trump’s nonsense filings are all getting promptly shot down. For those asking why this trial didn’t happen sooner, it took James this long to be in a position where everything was ensured to go her way. The goal here isn’t to immediately take the most “aggressive” action possible, before you’ve even tied your shoelaces. The goal is to set the stage such that once you’re on it you’re guaranteed to win.
And that’s what we’re now seeing play out. Donald Trump has no way out of losing this trial, no matter what he does. Ivanka has no way out of incriminating her father, unless she wants to incriminate herself instead. Donald Trump’s assets are now as good as gone in this trial. And then it’ll be on to his criminal trials, where the cases are just as thoroughly stacked against him as this one is.
